Glow Bracelets, Nanu on Skype, Bugs under glass

Mama Kim and I usually give the kids in our Primary Church candy at the close of our time together and it is one of the things the children have come to expect. Today we did things a little differently and gave them glow bracelets. It was a very big hit, so big in fact that they forgot all about candy. We had to keep turning off the lights so they could see the bracelets in the dark and we had to keep giving demonstrations as the parents came to collect our little wards.
After church today we finally got on Skype and called our friends in the Ukraine. They moved away several months ago and we have not been diligent keeping in touch. (Shame on us.) It was so much fun to see and hear them again, especially the son, Nanu, who is a very special friend of mine. He and I worked and played together since he was little as I repaired a house for his father who was a co-worker and is still a good friend.
Mama asked him if he was having fun and he quickly said, “Not a bit. You’re not here.” He is six years old and so full of energy that it is difficult for the apartment to contain him. His mother, Lana says that with his father visiting in the US right now he is really out of control, but I think he is just in need of some time to run. He was running in circles yelling and dancing for us in front of the computer.
When the sound went out on our computer he was shouting for us to type a message to him. It was impossible for him to understand that neither Mama nor I knew how to type a message, but he was relentless on his end as he watched us on the still working video portion of Skype. We could hear him shouting, “Just type something. See the bottom? You can just type something so we can see it. Why aren’t they typing something? JUST TYPE IN THE BOX!” Meanwhile Mama is shaking her hands in confusion looking for a place to type something. Somewhere along the way Lana figured it out and sent us a message to start the process. Nanu was ecstatic. “They’re typing!! I can see it. You’re doing it! YEAH!!” “Nanu”, she calls him, “calm down.” He never did.
Our associate pastor told a story on his wife tonight. Lately she has been capturing bugs under glass and holding them captive in this way until he gets there to kill them. He asked what the difference was in placing a glass over them and just killing them when she sees them.
“It’s that awful crunching sound.”